The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has released its findings of the first study that attempts to quantify the levels of government and social restrictions on religion in the world.

The study, Global Restrictions on Religion, included 198 counties and self-administering territories, or more than 99.5 percent of the world’s population. The study took place from 2006 to 2008, and researchers relied on facts and information from 16 widely cited and publicly available reports, including reports from the U.S. State Department, the Council of the European Union, Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group. Researchers also considered government actions, policies, laws and specific incidents of religious violence or intolerance.

Freedom is defined as “the absence of hindrance, restraint, confinement or repression,” and the study focused on measuring the presence of religious restrictions of various kinds and categorized them into two indexes: the Government Restrictions Index and the Social Hostilities Index.

During the period of the study, researchers reveal that 64 nations, or nearly 70 percent of the world population, live with high restrictions on religion, whether it results from government policies or civilian hostilities.

Overall, the highest levels of restrictions are found in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan. Vietnam and China are noted for having high government restrictions on religion, but moderate to low social hostilities. Nigeria and Bangladesh have high social hostilities but moderate government restrictions.

Among all the regions, the Middle East-North Africa region has the highest level of restriction for both indexes of measure, while the Americas have the least restrictions. Among the world’s 25 most populous countries, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan and India have the most restrictions, while Brazil, Japan, the United States, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom have the least.

Public tensions among religious groups were found in 87 percent of countries, and 64 percent (126 countries) experienced hostilities that involved violence. In 49 countries, civilian people or groups used force or threats to push adherence to a religion. In 17 countries, religion-related terrorism that resulted in causalities occurred.

In 178 countries (90 percent of the world) religious groups must register with the government, and in 117 countries, registration requirements create problems for or discrimination against certain faiths.

One country that is excluded from the findings is North Korea because of its closed-off nature. Researchers were unable to gather the specific information that was necessary to evaluate and quantify this country, so there are no scores on which to report. However, the study says, “sources clearly indicate that North Korea’s government is among the most repressive in the world with respect to religion as well as other civil and political liberties.”

-- PewForum.org

Week in Religion

- Dec. 14, 1981, the modern nation of Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights, which had been captured from Syria during the 1967 War.

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- Dec, 16, the Colored Methodist Church of America was established in Jackson, Tenn. Its name was changed in 1954 to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

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